Edmonton Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish was busy early at the 2013 NHL Draft, but the moves were less bold than many may have hoped for. Second round picks, as promised, were the currency of choice but rather than shoring up the Oilers in the short-term Mactavish opted to re-stock the team's supply of draft picks, which had been depleted entering the draft.

MacTavish pulled off a pair of trades, and while he failed to add NHL-ready talent to the Oilers he did manage to turn one second round draft pick into five selections in the two moves:

Edmonton traded their 37th overall pick to Los Angeles for the 57th, 88th and 96th picks

Edmonton then traded the 57th pick to St. Louis for the 83rd, 94th and 113th picks

All told, MacTavish sacrificed an early second round pick for selections at 83rd, 88th, 94th, 96th and 113th overall. Los Angeles picked Valentin Zykov; the Oilers instead took flyers on five different players:

Anton Slepyshev: A high-scoring Russian who was controversially passed over by everyone in 2012

Jackson Houck: A character player who led a weak Vancouver Giants team in scoring

Kyle Platzer: A defensive specialist buried on a strong London team

Aidan Muir: A 6'4" power forward playing midget hockey

The two trades do a pair of important things for the Oilers.

Firstly, Edmonton re-stocked what was a rather barren cupboard of picks. Thanks to trades with Dallas for Mark Fistric and Florida for Jerred Smithson, the Oilers didn't have a third or fourth round draft pick and without making trades would have come away with only six players; instead they sacrifice quality in Zykov in exchange for quantity. Given the boom-or-bust nature of the draft, it's understandable why the team would want as many choices as possible.

Secondly, all five players chosen with those picks are forwards. The Oilers have a pretty decent set of prospects on defence, but up front the development pipeline is getting pretty empty. This gives the team an opportunity to load up on players who can potentially play roles up front for Oklahoma and, in a few years, perhaps for Edmonton. It's obvious this was a position of need for the Oilers, and they've done their best to address it - with picks still to come, seven of their first eight selections (and all five acquired via trade) have been forwards, with first round pick Darnell Nurse the only exception.

For Oilers fans, it would have been nice to see the team improve in the short-term by adding NHL players, and the rumours of the team pursuing Cory Schneider and Braydon Coburn and Cal Clutterbuck and others won't move the dial forward on the team one inch. But it's also easy to see why Craig MacTavish made the choices he did, and his work on draft day did help address positions of organizational weakness.

Much more, however, will need to happen in the coming week or two.

Recently around the Nation Network

The big news of the day came, not from Edmonton, but rather from Vancouver, as their ongoing goaltending saga finally saw a significant shift. The Canucks opted to hang their hopes on the untradable Roberto Luongo, instead sending presumptive starter Cory Schneider to New Jersey in exchange for the ninth overall pick (which was used on centre Bo Horvat). At Canucks Army, Thomas Drance says he has conflicting thoughts on the process:

I'll admit that I'm of two minds about the deal that sent Cory Schneider to the New Jersey Devils straight up for the pick that became Bo Horvat. On the one hand, a top-ten pick in a deep draft is a solid return for an unproven starter. On the other, this was handled embarrassingly by the Canucks organization, the clubs overall indecision on this front is not a good look, and it ultimately worked out poorly for the club.

Click the link to read more, or alternately, feel free check out some of my other pieces here:

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

I feel like I should copy and paste what I said in the comments of the other article because I'm tired of hearing about the complaining of lack of BOLD MOVES so far but I won't and will just cherry pick what I wrote there.

* MacT said bold moves, not stupid moves made for the sake of making moves.

* It takes two to tango and no other team in the league has any interest in helping Edmonton get the pieces it needs to become a dangerous cup contender and certainly not for bargain bin prices.

* If what Gillis did to MacT with Schneider is any indication, other GMs are asking for the moon for the kind of players he wants, but are willing to get less from other teams they don't feel are as big of a threat. If he made any mistake, it's being so public with the desire to acquire the kinds of players he wants.

* Now is not the time to sell the farm for a few role players and a highly debatable marginal upgrade on goaltending.

* The world is not over after this draft is over. The horizon changes significantly again once free agency starts and teams lose out on the games of musical chairs they're going to be playing.

* None of the moves made already are worth crying over, really. Even the Clutterbuck one. Nino was a hell of a price to pay for him and I don't blame MacT for balking at that asking price. Islanders got burned in this trade IMO but what else is new about that management in that organization?

Still tons of time to make bold moves with the numerous of teams still suffering from salary cap issues and none of the big names have moved yet. If MacT swings and misses at all of them, we might have an issue then but as always keep in mind the price paid before you type angrily that he did. More trades like Clutterbuck for Nino trades aren't really in our favour.

MacTavish was pretty busy today, especially with Holmgren. Braydon Coburn still hasn't been dealt yet, so there may be something there still. I think he put in a fair bit of effort to try and get a deal done, but we know these things are easier said than done, unfortunately.

Also, did anyone think MacTavish would fix this team all at the draft? There's a lot of off-season left to make moves/signings. But it seems like this is a lot harder than MacTavish hoped. GMs seem pretty stingy these days.

The old Venture instrumental "Wipeout " or The " answer my friend is blowing in the wind" comes to mind .Sacrificed quality for quantity . "Smooth move exlax "? Looking forward to drafting Josh Ho-Sang second overall next season . Let the time clock begin . Will there be calls for bring back Tambo ?

I've sat thru players, coaches, GM's. Owners, games, and seasons. This weekend is one of the most disappointing times of all the above.

I'm not needing blockbuster trades like getting Vinny or Letang. But we cant offer what Toronto did to get Bolland? What about what the NYI offered to get Clutterbuck?? Coburn deal is all but dead now as well.

MacT couldn't even pull the the trigger to move and grab that goalie from Halifax.

This is weak and pathetic execution for MacT and his team. I don't care if they tried hard, or had lots of fingers in lots of pies.

No deals are better than bad deals. If the deal isn't there, Mac T is best to stand pat. I think overall he did pretty good for his first time out. I think a lot of GMs probably thought they could fleece the rookie. It's safe to say Mac T is smarter than that.

Smart
Mr. Katz gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes -- I guess he don't know
That three is more than two!

Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed Mr. Katz,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head--
Too proud of me to speak!

MacTavish was pretty busy today, especially with Holmgren. Braydon Coburn still hasn't been dealt yet, so there may be something there still. I think he put in a fair bit of effort to try and get a deal done, but we know these things are easier said than done, unfortunately.

Also, did anyone think MacTavish would fix this team all at the draft? There's a lot of off-season left to make moves/signings. But it seems like this is a lot harder than MacTavish hoped. GMs seem pretty stingy these days.

Typically, the NHL goes dark a few days after free agency with almost zero player movement as teams assess what they have going into training camp.

This year may be a little different because of the compliance buyouts but I would expect MacT has about 15 days to remake the roster with his 7-8 moves.

No deals are better than bad deals. If the deal isn't there, Mac T is best to stand pat. I think overall he did pretty good for his first time out. I think a lot of GMs probably thought they could fleece the rookie. It's safe to say Mac T is smarter than that.

The Oilers cannot afford to make "no deals".

They have gaping holes at centre on the blueline and in goal.

After selecting Nurse, which IMO is a solid pick, MacT was like a chimp with a loaded handgun.

It would of been nice to acquire a player or two with the picks today but seriously there still be lots of player movement in the next couple of weeks. The trade for Schneider would of ridiculous if MacT did that and the oilers could not offer more that NYI did for Clutterbuck. The only trade that the oilers could of offered more was on the Bolland trade. Don't judge until late July after free agency has settled.

The biggest disappointment I have with the Oilers organization is for the last 5-7 years is getting everyone's hopes up that they will be doing something at the draft and then they do nothing. Mac T was the one who said he was going to make Bold move's and he did absolutely f all today in that regard. Hemsky Horcoff and Belanger are all still Oilers I am sure he could of got picks or made a decent trade for one of the three.

Sometimes the best deals turn out to be the ones you don't make. The deal for Schneider was a shocking over payment for an unproven goaltender. Coburn can continue to disappoint the Flyer faithful rather than the Oilers Tier 1 fans.

Can someone please keep an eye out for LT. He could be walking the streets in the west end somewhere, disillusioned by todays sequence of events. Best have an ice cold beer ready in your first aid pack if you find him.

Really, Bolland is the best you can come up with for an example of a missed opportunity?

JW himself had an article ( http://oilersnation.com/2013/6/28/dave-bolland-is-not-a-fit-for-the-edmonton-oilers ) on why Bolland was not a fit for the Oilers and I agree with it. Why beat ourselves up for that? Clutterbuck? We offered Pitlick and a second for him, but we don't have a player of Nino's caliber to match and if we did it was a wise decision not to offer him up. Schneider's asking price from the Oilers was only slightly less ridiculous than the offer you yourself proposed for him.

But beyond all that? It's one half a day into the very beginning of what will be a very busy off-season. Writing off MacT at this point is pure foolishness and a knee jerk reaction that only serves to make you look as silly as it does impatient.

Bold what a joke! I'm not suggesting making move solely to make moves. But if macT is waiting for someone to give him something for nothing, we can expect nothing. Lets hope he can do something on the 5th. But with our history at free agency I'm a little worried.(can you blame me).

So we couldnt offer more for clutterbuck? Like pitlick and two 2nds? Or gernat? Those offers were very easily topped, but, as usual: 'we were aggressive, but the deal just wasn't there'. The famous last words of now two Oiler GMs.

The biggest issue now, since he couldn't make any moves let alone "bold" ones, is that its looking like we are going to be icing the same uncompetitive team next year. The UFA pool is extremely shallow, so without overpaying for anyone, MacT is going to go home empty handed there too.

I had heard Horcoff had already sold his house. Wonder if he can back out of that....

#83 and #88 were russias leading scoring forwards in there 10-11 U18 WJC team.

I bet MacT was in on Bolland, we need to wait for the story. Chicago I bet got a similar offer and chose to trade outta conference. They know what Bolland is about and do you want that nasty piece of work playing against Kane, Sharp, Toews. I wouldn't of traded to the Oil period. They would of paid for it.

Coburn sounds like Philly expected Smid and two.seconds. The two seconds obviously were probably the sticking point. Smid for Coburn and something else would of been fine. Two.seconds is an overpay..

Clutterbuck. Snow is a imbecil, and Chucky Fletcher is brilliant. Clutterbuck was a pipe dream.

So we couldnt offer more for clutterbuck? Like pitlick and two 2nds? Or gernat? Those offers were very easily topped, but, as usual: 'we were aggressive, but the deal just wasn't there'. The famous last words of now two Oiler GMs.

There's aggressive then there is plain stupid. Neidereiter was a stupid overpay, thats like trading MPS or Klefbom. You just walk away. Clutterbuck is on a decline. Garth Snow is a fool.

Gernat is a gem. He's prospect you don't toss in. Have you watched any Oil Kings games. He's a great prospect.

I have to say that I am as very impatient as the next guy (Oiler fan) to see something great to bold being done but...that being said...The Oilers did not make a stupid overpayment type deal today and... because of trading down after Nurse (excellent pick IMO with the 5 top rated centres gone by then)...the Oilers stocked the cupboards for prospects.

I believe that after Nurse, the Oilers did alright with Olivier Roy (C), Yakimov (C), Slepyshev (C/W)...

However, MacT did state he was going to make moves and changes... This is the time now to do so due to the cap panic going on with many teams (buyouts/Compliance buyouts)...

I am still hoping for of the Seguin possibility deal that may be still out there right now...which would immediately upgrade one centre issue of the Oilers. Maybe Seguin isn't the complete answer but him and RNH with Eberle, Hall or Yakupov plus a possibilty of Horton (UFA)could be more exciting and then Gagner is either trade bait or being dropped down to third line centre status.

I've sat thru players, coaches, GM's. Owners, games, and seasons. This weekend is one of the most disappointing times of all the above.

I'm not needing blockbuster trades like getting Vinny or Letang. But we cant offer what Toronto did to get Bolland? What about what the NYI offered to get Clutterbuck?? Coburn deal is all but dead now as well.

MacT couldn't even pull the the trigger to move and grab that goalie from Halifax.

This is weak and pathetic execution for MacT and his team. I don't care if they tried hard, or had lots of fingers in lots of pies.

Tell us again how great July 5th will be...

1) explain what makes "the goalie from Halifax" so impressive. All anyone talked about when he was picked was his win-loss record (40-5 or something like that).

Here's a hint: IF YOU ONLY LOSE 5 GAMES WHILE PUTTING UP A .905 SAVE PERCENTAGE.... THEN YOU PLAY FOR AN AWESOME TEAM.

Fucale won't be the best goalie in this draft, thank god we didn't move up for him... as if you can do that by magic or something anyway. Just an ignorant statement on all fronts.

I don't get the angst, the Oilers drafted very well today, especially with the first and them extra picks..

Look at some of the trades today (other than Bolland who asked to go to Toronto which is why the price was so cheap) and you can see that the Oilers don't have the same level of quality to move, all we have are the unmovable kids, some poor/underperforming vets and average to below average prospects.

MacT can only do what he can do, when Neiderreiter and McBain and high picks are available and we have nothing comparable to offer.

Nobody is going to gift us assets for Pitlick, Lander, Musil or Horcoff and Hemsky for that matter. Gotta give to get and we don't have much to give, which is a massive failing of Tambellini's and not on MacT.

Picking up the second-rated defenceman in a deep draft is not a bad play. Not surrendering a king's ransom for a marginal upgrade in net, is not a bad play. Trading back and picking up 5 picks for one is not a bad play, especially once you've gone past the top tier of prospects in the draft.

But telling everyone that you were going to make bold moves and then making no bold moves at all shows MacT needs to work on managing expectations.

Another Year, Another Draft, same old BULLSH*T. Do absolutely nothing. You took a 2nd round pick with approx a 10-15% chance of becoming an NHLer and for 5 picks that have a total combine 1% likelyhood of becoming an NHLers. If thats a good job hire a bum from the street because he could do that.
Give a guy $150 in bills and he give you $1 in change. Ya nice moves.

The Bolland and Clutterbuck trades were not over payments and the Oilers should have been in there. Van also completely F'd the Oilers on the Schnieder front(which is good in my opinion but still classless).

Every year I can't help but feel this team is becoming more and more of a joke. Other GMs don't even want to deal with them and it seems only low level players want to come here. I think I might need to start supporting the Leafs instead.

I'm with u. U can sugar coat all day, but today was an epic fail by Mact.

I'm sickened by the continued inability of the organization to improve while ever other seems to be able to do it.

The Oilers are incompetent on some many levels withing the organization it isn't even funny and I think over the last little while the entire league has shown it. Edmonton is viewed as the mini-me by the rest of the NHL and they showed it today.

#83 and #88 were russias leading scoring forwards in there 10-11 U18 WJC team.

wasn't one of these guys passed over last year in the draft? and if they're quality players why did they sink so low in this draft? because there are projected problems with these guys. have we all forgotten the linus omark episode, i guess we had to put our hand on the hot stove twice more.

1) explain what makes "the goalie from Halifax" so impressive. All anyone talked about when he was picked was his win-loss record (40-5 or something like that).

Here's a hint: IF YOU ONLY LOSE 5 GAMES WHILE PUTTING UP A .905 SAVE PERCENTAGE.... THEN YOU PLAY FOR AN AWESOME TEAM.

Fucale won't be the best goalie in this draft, thank god we didn't move up for him... as if you can do that by magic or something anyway. Just an ignorant statement on all fronts.

@ Ca$h Money

Not saying he is the next Roy or Brodeur. However it was clear the Oilers wanted him as the trade with LA was made the second MTL announced their selection. But as usual we weren't aggressive enough.

So though I appreciate your "Hints" and comment about it being an ignorant statement. Next time do some some research as to how it all went down and don't make me have to hold your hand while doing it.

What could the Oilers have possibly offered more to Minnesota for Clutterbuck than a recent player that went 5th overall? Sure the oilers could of added more picks but there is a lot more value in Niederreiter than Pitlick and a 2nd rounder.

He picked a defenseman who is at least two years away from the NHL and then turned 2 seconds into a bunch of lottery tickets.

Not only did he not address team needs (#2C, first pairing D or a legit goaltending prospect), but he parlayed a strong position in the second round into a bunch of players who have only slightly better than a zero chance of playing in the NHL.

Since you mentioned Gillis...he took a dreadful goaltending situation and turned it into Bo Horvat and Hunter Shinkaruk, two players who are likely to have a much more immediate impact than anyone the Oilers drafted.

While Gillis painted himself into a corner with Luongo, he walked away with TWO very good forward prospects for his trouble.